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Old 02-28-2018, 07:32 PM   #131
Johnny1A.2
 
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Yes, when I refer to a "Random" process, I mean truly random, not something that can be effected by a different part of the government. Though playing around with who can call for elections might result in several interesting variants.
The first U.S. Senate was divided into three groups by lot, IIRC, 1/3 up for reelection in 2 years, 1/3 up in 4 years, and the rest had the standard 6 year term, in order to start the 'staggered elections' the Framers wanted for the Senate.

Something similar could be set up for a legislative body, maybe there's a coin toss every January 1, heads it's an election year, tails it's not. You'd probably also have a time limit so you'd get an election every five years or whatever, coin toss or not.

It could function, but I'm not sure what sort of politics you'd get.

A variation: incumbents draw lots in election years, with a 1 in 4 chance of drawing a losing lot and they have to leave the legislature. You could still voluntarily not run for reelection, of course.
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Old 03-01-2018, 10:14 AM   #132
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

I just found out about Lebanon's political system. It's called confessionalism.

A number of religious groups are designated as political parties. You don't vote in national elections, you vote in elections for your religion or "Confession". The religious groups have a number of permanently assigned positions. The number of seats for each religion is fixed, and its only been changed once in 80 years.

Various positions, such as president and prime minister are earmarked for certain confessions.

You can run variants along lines other than religion. And while its not ideal, it may be the best way to make a very divided nation work.
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Old 03-01-2018, 12:08 PM   #133
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

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I just found out about Lebanon's political system. It's called confessionalism.

A number of religious groups are designated as political parties. You don't vote in national elections, you vote in elections for your religion or "Confession". The religious groups have a number of permanently assigned positions. The number of seats for each religion is fixed, and its only been changed once in 80 years.

Various positions, such as president and prime minister are earmarked for certain confessions.

You can run variants along lines other than religion. And while its not ideal, it may be the best way to make a very divided nation work.
Israel does something similar with family law. It follows Common Law otherwise.

In a sense this is simply beefing party politics: "confessions" just have a political face to do their politics just like they have landscapers to take care of their lawn.
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Old 03-01-2018, 12:33 PM   #134
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Ostracism. This was done by Ancient Athens of course. But a revival could be used as a balance-of-power trick. A legislator's vote could be suspended on a minimum number of votes from the other chamber or the general populace or both or either. This does not need to mean exile(unlike the other version)nor need it imply dishonor, but only that a given politician is felt to have more power then is good for him.

Effectively it would be a political version of an antitrust suit.
I often long for the return of ostracism.

Of course most of the people I would like to 'forbid the kingdom' live abroad. How do you ostracise the head of a multinational? How does any one state control an 'over mighty subject' in the current international world?
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Old 03-01-2018, 12:47 PM   #135
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

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Effectively it would be a political version of an antitrust suit.
No, it's just a slight variant on something that already exists -- removal by the populace is a recall petition, removal of a legislator by other legislators is a motion to expel, removal of an executive by legislators is a vote of no confidence or impeachment.
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Old 03-01-2018, 01:15 PM   #136
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

"Advocacies"

This is not really exotic. Just a minor thought tweak. The "party" idea is basically an archeological digging site from the English Civil War(in Europe, read, French Revolution).

Suppose, those events either did not happen or were far enough out of the picture to be irrelevant to a given republic. Instead it is ruled by advocacies. That is special interests which are straightforward representatives of a given sodality or kin-group. Or whatever How it is defined does not matter; it just needs enough influence to get someone on a ticket. Some advocacies will be ideological but the idea of a permanent civil war will not be part of the political life. In a way elections will resemble markets more then battlefields.
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Old 03-01-2018, 06:13 PM   #137
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A system where the only government consists of courts who are funded by the plaintiffs who file charges in them and the police they employ.
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Old 03-01-2018, 06:15 PM   #138
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A system where the only government consists of courts who are funded by the plaintiffs who file charges in them and the police they employ.
"Here, my lawyer is this group of guys with guns, and your lawyer is that group of guys with guns. Looks like I have more guys, so I'm clearly in the right." Totally viable government system, though tends to be inefficient.
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Old 03-01-2018, 07:22 PM   #139
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Default Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems

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"Here, my lawyer is this group of guys with guns, and your lawyer is that group of guys with guns. Looks like I have more guys, so I'm clearly in the right." Totally viable government system, though tends to be inefficient.
No. Only one court per community with the justice elected by the members of the community. It's obviously a wild-westy type of setting so in case of a crisis the judge can temporarily deputize more members of the community.
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Old 03-01-2018, 08:13 PM   #140
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A system where the only government consists of courts who are funded by the plaintiffs who file charges in them and the police they employ.
Sounds somewhat like the judicial system the Duncanites use in GURPS Transhuman Space.
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